Beautiful World, Where Are You is Sally Rooney’s third and most recent novel. It follows four different characters throughout a portion of their lives. Alice, Eileen, Simon and Felix all have difficult and overlapping relationships with one another. The book kicks off when Alice meets Felix on a dating app and then invites him on a trip to Rome with her. The book then follows all four of the characters, as they come to terms with their adult coming of age. Plot There isn’t much of a plot to this novel, which is a pretty standard move in any Sally Rooney novel. Her books tend to meander a bit, which I mean in the best way. There was a bit more of a classic plot structure to this book, but it ultimately was just a look into the lives of four interconnected people. We follow them at the same slow pace that real life moves at. It’s an excellent plot when you’re looking for a chill read. However, some parts of the book began to drag on a bit. I ran into this issue pretty frequently during this book, which sometimes made it difficult to work my way through it. However, I think that the book was saved by the characters and themes, so overall, I still enjoyed it. Characters Felix Felix was one of my favorite characters, despite being the one with the least amount of on-page development. He is a twenty-nine-year-old living in a small Irish town and working in a warehouse, he is relatively well-liked, but is reeling since the death of his mother, and is grappling with some dark mistakes from his past. Despite his lack of development as the story progressed, I liked his voice as a character, and I found him very compelling to read. Alice Alice is an acclaimed author who has recently suffered a psychological break and has retired to a small town to convalesce. I liked Alice a lot, and I think that she underwent the most change out of everyone in this novel. She got a good amount of backstory, and she felt really well-developed. Her point of view was compelling to read, even though she got a little pretentious at times. She often seemed to be ignorant of the immense amount of privilege that she held, but I think that was done on purpose, so I’ll let it slide. Eileen Eileen is a twenty-nine-year-old literary magazine editor, who is struggling with living alone nearing her thirties, her unstable family life, and the fact that her sister is getting married. I liked her as much as I like any other character, I found her rather endearing and not nearly as pretentious as Alice. Simon Simon is the oldest of all of the characters, in his mid-thirties, as opposed to his late twenties. I honestly don’t have a lot to say about him. I liked him well enough, but he seemed like he was there more to be a support for Eileen than as a real character in his own right. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, maybe this just wasn’t Simon’s story. Themes The main theme of this novel was coming of age. This is common in most Sally Rooney novels, no matter the age of the characters. This novel felt different, simply because the characters were so much older than her usual university-aged protagonists. Still, it showed that one could come of age at any point in their life and that even people nearing their thirties don’t have things figured out. In fact, it’s often quite the opposite. This book does a great job capturing real life in all of its complexities, and it was a welcome snapshot of the rocky lives of these four characters. Nate Fahmiis a young writer from Ottawa, Canada. When he isn’t in school, he enjoys reading, writing, crochet, and playing with his two cats. Their favorite genres are horror and fantasy, and they enjoy all things strange. You can find him on Instagram at @nate_fahmi
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